Real Life Urban Prepper

Real Life Urban Prepper Introduction

The fact that more and more people are becoming preppers is a credit to today’s prepper community who are a great bunch of people committed to sharing their emergency preparedness knowledge with all who want to learn. As a real-life urban prepper, I decided to write this article to share my knowledge and offer more detail and my point of view on what an urban prepper does.

Definition Of An Urban Prepper

An urban prepper is an person who is preparing to live, stay and survive in an urban environment such as a town, city or any other built up residential area. Although becoming an urban prepper could be one of pure choice, often its more a case of circumstance due to a prepper’s geographical location. In most cases, a prepper becomes an urban prepper because they live and work in an urban area. Due to this, an urban prepper plans to stay and survive in their home should an urban disaster or event occur.

This is a logical approach to emergency preparedness because a lot of urban prepper’s don’t live close to any rural or wilderness locations to which they could escape. Often attempting to flee to any such location could be harmful to their survival.

Another reason it makes sense is that in most cases they have everything they need at home to survive. Far more than you could fit in a bug out bag. They also have the home advantage they know their area well and are best positioned to defend themselves.

A good example of someone who becomes an urban prepper due to circumstance is a person who lives in the united kingdom which is a largely urban populated Island. Aside from some locations in Scotland and Wales, the UK has limited areas of wilderness to bug out to. This being the case urban prepper’s would only plan to bug out to a different location if there was absolutely no chance of surviving in the urban area they are most familiar with.

Why I Consider Myself An Urban Prepper

First and foremost I am a prepper who aims to research and learn as much emergency preparedness knowledge and skills that I can. There is, however, one factor of my life that at this time I cannot escape and that is I live and work in an urban location. So like many others, I have become an urban prepper through circumstance. I have everything I need close to my work or home so unless remaining at that location becomes undo-able for example because of a gas explosion or major flooding and so on I will remain there.

From my point of view becoming an urban prepper is also a sign of the times. We are now living in troubling times where terror attacks in towns and cities are becoming more common. This being the case we need to prepare for when we are out in urban areas going about our daily lives. You never know exactly when or where such attacks could happen. For this reason, I carry a basic urban survival kit with me at all times. This is often called everyday carry (EDC).

As An Urban Prepper, What Am I Preparing For?

For me being an urban prepper is about maximizing my chances of surviving any of the following urban scenarios:

Terror Attack

Civil Unrest

Economic Collapse

Log Term Power Outages

Pandemic

Solar Flares / EMP

Cyber Attack

The above list of emergency preparedness scenarios are the ones that I personally associate most with urban emergency preparedness. What you are prepping for and the reasons why will be dependent on your own circumstances and outlook as a prepper.

Everyday Carry Explained

Everyday Carry (EDC) is exactly what it says on the tin. It’s the survival gear that you carry on your person every day. Whilst the contents of such kit can change on a daily basis depending on your routine and activities. The idea is that you always have items on your person that can help you to survive unknown threats.

An example of some EDC items would be flashlights, multitools, knives, lighter, pen. Further on in this article, I will list for you the main EDC gear items that I carry on a daily basis. EDC gear is normally carried in pockets, on key chains, in cargo pants or anywhere on one’s person that is most practical.

My Every Day Carry Gear List Example

The items that you include in your Every Day Carry (EDC) kit will be dependent on the items you consider necessary for the situations you are preparing for. Here are the EDC gear items that are on my master list as an urban prepper:

I don’t necessarily take every item listed above wilt me at all times. What I take depends on what I’m doing on any given day. Whilst the above list may seem a lot, with a little practice and planning you can carry these items relativity stealthy.

My Real Life Urban Prepper Summary

Preparing for urban chaos is only one area of survivalism that many prepper’s plan for. We don’t always know whats waiting for us around the corner so preparing for as many emergency and survival scenarios as you can is the best approach to take. If you have any urban prepper survival ideas you would like to share why not add them to the comments section below.

You can also check out our prepper resources section for more information, checklists and free downloads.

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7 thoughts on “Real Life Urban Prepper”

Hi Jason. your EDC is apparently intended to get you from your urban job to your urban/suburban home, rather than be THE tool to deal with the disasters you list. You’re probably planning on other articles about your urban home plans. I look forward to those.

I work in a very urban environment, so carry a somewhat similar EDC to yours. It’s a bit more than pocket stuff — kind of a Get Home Bag “Lite”. It’s task is to get me to my more rural home (about a three day walk) where the real preps are. I got stuck in Boston during the Marathon Bomber lockdown. It turned out I didn’t have to walk home, as the cash got me a ride to the airport, from which I caught a different ride home.

With that task in mind, my EDC carries cash, of course, water and purification methods, a little snack food, shelter items ($1 poncho, space blanket) and some first aid. I carry a little fire-making like a mini-ferro rod and small Bic lighter, but I don’t plan to hunker down as much as keep moving. The fire options might be more drying/warming if I get wet.

Hi Mic, thanks for taking the time to give some feedback on the article. Your spot on the EDC list was intended as a list of the items I carry every day. I do plan to write some more specific articles on each individual scenario. Wow glad you got out of the Boston attack OK, that was dreadful I remember watching it unfold on the news. Its good to hear from someone who has first hand experience of being in such a situation. I’m always researching and learning so its great to hear from the Prepper community with real life examples and tips.

HaHa its good to know there are others like me out there. The Condor 2 is a great pack to have. I’m still waiting on delivery of the Wazoo Cache Belt which I hope will provide a more stealth carry. Oh and I think I forgot to add the glow sticks to that list 🙂

Yeah I have one glow stick in my fire kit for when I need light making a fire. I find headlamps good but too bulky since my bag is full. Check out my vid: Maxpedition Whore!” on YouTubehttps://youtu.be/lhsRNlzn3D4

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